Baby, Jack, and Allie update

I can't believe it myself, but I'm almost 17 weeks into this pregnancy. I think it has gone by so fast because I'm not obsessed with finding out the gender of the baby. I figure I have a boy and a girl and either way with the next one I will be excited and a little disappointed.That's probably good because I was devastated when I found out that Jack was a boy. What was I thinking!
All is still going well with this pregnancy. I had my last appointment with my OB/GYN this past week. We have decided to deliver at the Austin Area Birthing Center if everything goes as planned. So from here on out I will be seeing a midwife there. Surprisingly, my doctor was very supportive of our plan. I was a little nervous to tell her that I didn't plan on delivering in the hospital. But as usual she was great.

We have scheduled the BIG ultrasound where we hopefully find out the gender of the baby if it cooperates. We'll be going to that 3 weeks from tomorrow. Stay tuned to find out more.

Baby #3 at 16 weeks

So, on to Jack. I'm sure by now all 3 of our readers know about Jack's nut allergies. Several months back we gave him a trail mix that included cashews in it and he broke out in huge hives and went into anaphylactic shock. His mouth started swelling up and he was having major trouble breathing. So, I had to call 911. Luckily before I called 911 I was able to give him some Benadryl and by the time the paramedics (and about 15 firemen) got here he was just wheezing a little. It was so scary. We now keep an Epi Pen Jr on hand just in case. Recently we had another scare with Peanut Butter. Again he broke out in hives but this time I was able to get the medicine to him sooner and he was fine. We had some more allergy testing done on him about two weeks ago because I suspected that he had more than just nut allergies(the last Dr. would only test him for nuts for some crazy reason). We found out that he is allergic to peanuts, cashews, eggs, wheat, and soy. So, my latest dilemma is figuring out what the heck to feed him.
We also found out a couple of months ago that Jack will need eye surgery in the next two months or so. He is having problems focusing his right eye with his left eye when he looks at things at a distance. I had been noticing that when he was in his high chair and would stare off at things his right eye looked a little lazy and sure enough it is. Oh, Jack what a mess you are. But you sure are cute.

Jack with a patch over his eye before his last visit to the opthalmologist

Jack kept pulling the patch off so I had to put band aids all around it. It worked. The Dr. had a hard time getting it off.

In Allie news, she will be starting the University of Texas Lab School (preschool) in about 2 weeks. her teacher is coming to visit on Tuesday and Allie is excited to meet her. Adam and I are hoping that going to school will help her desire to get potty trained once and for all. As she says "Mommy I know how to use the potty. I just choose not to. I choose to wear my diaper." I'm about to throw the diapers out if this doesn't work. Then of course I'll be left to clean up the mess since she also chooses to go in her panties. I don't know which is worse, having 3 kids in diapers or "helping" her clean up her messes and just having 2 in diapers.



Oh, one last thing, I promise. We put Allie and Jack in the same room to sleep (Allie's room) for the first time tonight. We'll see how that goes. Jack was very upset when he first realized that we were leaving him in there. But by the time we closed the door they were having a grand time. Allie has been being a little mother in there. It is hilarious to hear the things she tells him. She's been reading to him to help Jack to feel better abut things. It's 8:15 and they are still playing. Maybe they'll sleep in tomorrow. Not likely. We'll let you know how this goes on our next blog posting sometime next month.

Family News!!!

So, most anybody (all three of you) who reads our blog probably knows by now that we are expecting a new Baby West in January. Allie has been asking for a baby sister for her birthday for quite a while now and my due date is actually Allies birthday, January 28th. We did what we could for the birthday present part, but as for it being a sister, I'm not sure if I can help you out on that one Allie.

We have had a couple of scares so far with the baby's heartbeat. At our first ultrasound (at 7 weeks) the baby measured right on for its age, but the heart beat was pretty slow. The doctor said that could mean nothing at all or it could end up in a miscarriage, only time would tell. That was on Friday and she scheduled us to come back in on Monday to do another ultrasound. The baby had grown over the weekend (amazing that they can tell that) and the heartbeat was normal. In fact the doctor said that the baby showed much more movement than normal at that age. I was just happy that the baby was moving, but when I told Adam that he said something like "uh oh, another wild child for us."

This past week I went in for another appointment at 11 weeks. Normally I wouldn't have come back until 12 weeks, but my doctor was getting ready to have her third baby and wanted me to come in before her induction to have another ultrasound to check the heart again. I had to see a different doctor (She broke my water when I was in the hospital delivering Jack) and she wasn't going to do another ultrasound until she tried to hear the heartbeat on the Doppler and couldn't. She looked for a heartbeat for what seemed like forever before she finally said "looks like we need to do an ultrasound." Of course I was thinking no wonder I've been feeling so much better than the last two pregnancies. It's because something happened to the baby. Then I had to wait a very long 15 minutes in the ultrasound room until she came back in. When she finally did the ultrasound everything was fine and once again the baby was very active. So, for now we are just keeping our fingers crossed and saying lots of prayers that everything will turn out OK. We'll keep you posted.

A New Ride

Now that we are expecting a new addition to the fam, we thought we should try to upgrade the space for transporting these various kids and their luggage around town. Actually, Jen has been keeping an eye out for larger vehicles for quite a while, just so she could be prepared for the time when we actually pull the trigger.


Some might wonder, "How can these poor saps (literally and figuratively) afford another vehicle. Well, you can thank our Uncle Sam for that. We decided to use our tax refund from last tax year, the government stimulus checks from a couple of months ago, next years estimated tax refund, and a special county rebate program to purchase a new 7-passenger van.


The rebate program involved "trading-in" a car that is either over 10 years old or has failed the most recent emissions testing. Adam was driving a 1993 Dodge Shadow with a few miles on it.

So, we applied to take the "Purple Plum" off the road. The rebate program basically counted the car as a trade-in valued at $3000. Of course, the car was worth about $25 in parts, so we thought it was a good idea to look at getting in on the rebate program.



Jen, who never thought of herself as a "mini-van gal," has been researching vans since Allie was born. So she settled on looking at a Honda Odessey or a Toyota Sienna. The Toyota's are a little cheaper on the used car market, which we were in, but none-the-less still have great track records. So Jen found a small local car wholesaler who also sells a few cars to the public. Their gimmick is that you pay the price on the sticker (i.e., no haggling), but they also don't really dolly-up the cars or put add-ons to increase the resale value (often a tactic of other car dealers). When we got to the dealer, we could tell that the cars were washed and vacuumed, but nothing much else.



Jen was originally looking at an 2007 8-passenger Sienna LX (middle-tier van). All of the LXs on the lot were previous rentals with about 20,000 miles or so on them. Some of them sure seemed like rentals, with stains on the carpets and funny smells from the interior. But they were 8-passengers and had an automatic sliding door (just one door is auto on the LX-you have to get the top-tier van for two side auto doors). We couldn't decide which of the three or four we liked.



While we were mulling it over, we decided to check out a 2008 Sienna CE, which is the low-tier van of the line. Basically, it doesn't have auto doors or color-keyed side mirror, but it has the same engine, safety features, and interior setup. We took it for a test drive and noticed that it had only 4500 miles on it and it smelled brand new. It even looked as if it was hardly driven. It had a price tag of a $1,000 or so more than what we were expecting with the 2007, but it was basically brand new.



So, now we have a new van to think about, although it didn't have the two things Jen was looking at: 8-passenger and auto-sliding door. We thought, however, that while it was being sold used, it seemed too new to pass up. We also thought there was some catch as to why this almost new, hardly driven van was being sold as used. We don't know the back story of the van, but a carfax check showed no problems, just that it was sold at an auction to the dealer we were visiting.



Anyway, we decided to get the 2008, which happens to be the same exterior color as our 2005 Toyota Corolla (thanks Grandpa West for helping us get that car!). So, now we don't have to worry about where to put a third car seat, because there is plenty of room for even two or three more car seats in our new ride (don't get any ideas).

Staying out of trouble

We teach our kids to always keep their noses clean.

Long time, no post

The day before Mother's Day we went to the local Farmer's Market to pick up some veggies for dinner that night (grilled vegetables and tofu mixed with bow tie pasta-yum). We also picked up some peaches that the kids wanted to eat right away. What a mess, but they were so good. I'm not sure about that face that I'm making but Allie sure loved that peach.
Jack ate the peach so fast. We couldn't find the seed so we just thought that he had dropped it on the ground. I even stuck my finger in his mouth to check if it was in there.
After the peach was gone we saw him sucking on something. It was the seed. I guess he must have been hiding it in is cheek like a little chipmunk.
I've been taking the kids to the park pretty much every morning lately. It really helps the day to go better. Our favorite park which happens to be really close by has this dolphin that shoots water out of it. The kids love to play in the water and then go play on the play scape or in the sand.


Last summer the dolphin never worked so we figured it was just old and broken. We were really surprised earlier in the month when Allie pushed the button and water came out.
Allie threw something at her brother and this is me putting her in a time out. If you look very closely you can see that she is screaming and kicking. Gotta love toddlerhood.
This is Jack at the top of the play scape climbing out. He's learning from his sister to be very brave. I just thought this was a cute close up of Jack
Here is Daddy racing down the slide with Jack in the background.

So, my latest cooking adventure (other than experimenting with new vegetarian recipes) is bread baking. I've always been afraid of making yeast products because they take so long to make and if they don't turn out well then you've wasted a whole day in the process. We had a church activity that a friend of mine named Kristen taught. She showed us how to make a basic refrigerator roll recipe. I told her that I really wanted to learn to bake whole wheat bread so that I didn't have to buy the stuff at the store with high fructose corn syrup in it or spend a fortune buying it at Whole Foods or Central Market. She offered to come over and show me how to make bread using this recipe she has from a 1950's Betty Crocker Cook Book. It came out really great while she was there (of course). A couple of days later I tried it on my own and it didn't go so well. I tried again a couple of days after that and low and behold it turned out terrific (or at least I think so). Now I'm baking 4 loaves every week and a half and then freezing it to use throughout the coming week. It's so nice not to have to buy bread from the store with 50 ingredients in it. Plus it's always such a sense of accomplishment to make lunch every day for the kids on my own bread.

Adam's mom recently came to visit us for a couple of days. we had a really good time with her. I wish we had taken more pictures, but it's hard to get the kids to sit still. We didn't do much on this visit. It was nice and relaxing.

Grandma brought these two chairs with her for the kids. Of course they fought over them the whole time and almost killed themselves pushing each other over in them on the tile floors inside. So, now they are officially outdoor chairs. They still fight over them, but at least it's outside on the grass. Every morning when they go out into the backyard, they each pick their chair and then just sit in it for a few minutes before pulling it all around the yard and putting it on the trampoline.

These are some cute pictures with Grandma before she left to go back to Dallas.
Jack and Grandma
Allie and Grandma

Holding Hands

We took a trip to the Austin Zoo last week when Auntie K was here visiting from Tennessee. I decided to try and get a picture of the kids holding hands. Here is what I got.

Cookies anyone?

Larger than average

The other day, Jack had his 15-month checkup and Allie her 3 year check-up with the pediatrician. As with most visits, the children are weighed and measured and rated according to some ranking chart that somehow includes ranges of US children’s measurements. The rankings are given as a percentile. For example, “Your child is in the 60ith percentile, for weight” means that the child supposedly weights less than 40% and more than 60% of other children of the same age. You can check out a sample chart that pediatrician's offices often use at Keep Kids Healthy.

Jack has always been a larger child than his playmates of the same age, so we were expecting the results to be approaching the 100% marker. Over the past year, Allie, on the other hand, while at one time was larger in all measures compared to her counterparts, has slipped back to just “average,” or around the 50% range for all measure.

Well, here is the latest report, with percentiles in parentheses:

Jack (age 15 months)

• Weight: 25.8 lbs (70%)
• Height: 32.5 inches (85%)
• Head Circumference: 50 cm (greater than 97%)

Allie (age 3 years)

• Weight: 34 lbs (80%)
• Height: 40 inches (97%)
• (no head circumference at this age, although her blood pressure is normal)

So the verdict is that our children really are supposedly larger in some respects than other children their age. What does that mean? In my opinion, not much. I would, however, like to find a way to shrink Jack’s head. It’s huge! We have trouble fitting some of his t-shirts over his head.

Music for the ears

I know we haven't updated in a while and that I should post something informational rather than self-serving, but I thought I would post a link to my free MySpace.com music account.

http://www.myspace.com/adamrwest

If you have some time, drop on by and listen to the 5 or so songs that I have posted. I am in the long process of getting some songs together to put out a real album for download and purchase. At the rate I'm going, however, I'll be in my 40s before that happens.

Who is that girl?

I was straightening my hair one morning and Allie came into the bathroom and asked me to do hers. So, I just did her bangs, but when I was done she wanted me to keep going. I was totally surprised because I had tried to do her bangs once before and she reached up and
grabbed the iron and burnt herself. She let me do all of it and for the first time she had a head full of straight hair instead of curls and waves mixed with frizz. We couldn't believe how different she looked.

Allie had her end of semester preschool party that day at Gymboree and was able to show of her new hair for the day


Earlier in the day Allie had a friend over and they both wanted pig tails in their hair


Allie and Jack on the rocking horse at Gymboree
Jack had a blast playing with the big kids
Jack doing the hard work pushing Allie

Jack on the trampoline